Denzel Washington, the celebrated actor with a ton of awards for his roles that have garnered billions in the Box Office, now has a new role: as a minister after receiving his minister’s license this past weekend.
As he nears his 70th birthday, just days away, Washington was not only baptized, but became a minister in a ceremony at a church in New York.
The Oscar-winning actor, who is now appearing in the latest blockbuster movie, Gladiator II, was baptized on Saturday at the Kelly Temple Church of God in Christ in Harlem, New York City, affiliated to the Pentecostal Church of God in Christ denomination. The service was livestreamed on Facebook, showing Washington, wearing a white robe, being immersed in the church’s ritual pool and being presented with a certificate of baptism.
Mentioning he is about to turn 70 on 28 December, Washington told the congregation: “It took a while, but I’m here…If [God] can do this for me, there’s nothing He can’t do for you,” Washington said.
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According to Archbishop Christopher Bryant presiding over the service, “The sky literally is the limit.”
Bryant shared photos of the moment Washington gave his life to Christ in a Facebook post.
“We celebrate the addition of Minister Denzel Washington into the clergy, having received his minister’s license in the Church of God in Christ today, in a truly uplifting moment,” the post read.
“He is dressed that way because, in the same service, he received water baptism,” Bryant added. “Both the baptism and the licensing took place at the Historic Kelly Temple in NYC, a place close to his heart. Denzel Washington attended this church as a child and testified to being filled with the Holy Spirit after visiting another church with actor Robert Townsend in the 80s.”
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How Denzel’s Wife Reacted to His Baptism
Denzel’s wife, Pauletta Washington, also spoke about how proud she was of her husband of 41 years taking this big step in his religion.
“Forty-six years later, here I’m still standing next to him as only God will have it,” the actress — who shares kids John, 40, Katia, 37, and twins Olivia and Malcolm, 33, with Denzel — said as her husband sat on the steps of the pulpit, seemingly wiping away tears.
“So, I’m very proud of you. You are the head of our house and you have set a great example for our children, who are now adult children who know the difference because we have shown them the difference.”
Denzel’s Spiritual Awakening
During the service, Denzel spoke about an incident when he was 20 in which he encountered a woman called Ruth Green in his mother’s beauty parlor, who told him: “Boy, you are going to travel the world and preach to millions of people.”
Later in the ceremony, Washington was given a minister’s license by the church, which would enable Washington to officiate at minor religious services, such as weddings, and allow him to be ordained in the future.
In an interview with Esquire in November, Washington described his moment of religious awakening in the early 1980s in a church in Los Angeles. “It felt like I was getting lifted up. It felt like my back was arched, and I had my eyes closed. Not that I was going up in the air, but – I can’t exactly describe it. And I was blabbering, and kept blabbering, because I was filled with the Holy Spirit.”
The Other Decision that Changed His Life
Washington was born in Mount Vernon, New York. His father, Denzel Hayes Washington, Sr., was an ordained Pentecostal minister, who also worked for the Water Department and at a local department store.
When he was 14, his parents broke up, and his mother sent him to a private preparatory school, Oakland Military Academy in New Windsor, New York.
While he was getting pressured from the local gangs around the old neighborhood, he could have rebelled and tried to go back to his original surroundings, but instead, Washington decided to give it a try and embrace where he was. It was that change in his surroundings that opened up his eyes and mind that there could be more for his life.
“That decision changed my life,” Washington later said, “because I wouldn’t have survived in the direction I was going. The guys I was hanging out with at the time, my running buddies, have now done maybe 40 years combined in the penitentiary. They were nice guys, but the streets got them.”
Washington is a devout Christian and has considered becoming a preacher. He stated in 1999, “A part of me still says, ‘Maybe, Denzel, you’re supposed to preach. Maybe you’re still compromising.’ I’ve had an opportunity to play great men and, through their words, to preach. I take what talent I’ve been given seriously, and I want to use it for good.”
In an interview with Bishop T.D. Jakes on his daytime talk show, Washington explained why, at this point in his career, he’s focusing on serving others.
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“I’m in the service business now, I’m fine. I’ve done well,” Washington said on the “TD Jakes Show.” “I don’t need any watches and all of that. So I’m here to serve God, here to serve my family.”
Denzel is an avid reader and he studies the Bible daily and says he goes over Psalm 56: “Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; the fighting daily oppresseth me.”
“When you see me, you see the best I could do with what I’ve been given by my lord and savior. I’m unafraid,”
Denzel remarked in the same Esquire interview in November.
“I don’t care what anyone thinks. See, talking about the fear part of it — you can’t talk like that and win Oscars. You can’t talk like that and party. You can’t say that in this town,” the Academy Award winner added.
“I’m free now. It’s not talked about in this town. It’s not talked about. It’s not talked about. It’s not fashionable. It’s not sexy. But that doesn’t mean people in Hollywood don’t believe.”
